Mud, Hay and Eggs!

February 11, 2014 was a good day on the farm.  That's farm lingo for a "productive" day when nothing, animal or human, got injured or sick! 

The first task of the day involved getting my big truck unstuck from the field.  Now this adventure actually began a few days ago when John and I were attempting to get hay that we are selling loaded on a trailer and delivered to a neighboring farm.  We were successful with the first load of 14 bales (that's 14 - 1000# bales!) which is a pretty big load on uneven pasture ground that is pretty darn slick!  Apparently the ground had thawed enough by the time we got the second load ready to pull out that it wasn't gonna happen.  We used the tractor to push and pull but had to finally give up and leave the truck and loaded trailer "stuck" in the field.  I hate it when that happens!!!  So anyway, John and I both decided that yesterday morning, if we got a very early start, the ground would be cold enough to try to get the truck unstuck and complete the task of delivering the 50 bales of hay.  We did get the truck unstuck and delivered two more loads of 14 bales each and both the neighbor and us decided to call this job complete for now!  Of course it was not before the FEDEX man ended up in a ditch when he rounded a curve obviously not paying attention and going way too fast to stop since the roads we were traveling on are not big enough for me to pass even a bicycle when I am driving the truck pulling the 25' trailer!  All I could do was grip the steering wheel, close my eyes and pray while he swerved off the road to avoid me landing in the very muddy ditch.  I did stop to make sure he was ok and make the call to the neighbor with the 4-wheel drive tractor to come pull him out of the ditch!

John still had to put hay out for our animals and I needed to get all my daily feeding/watering done so we separated for our respective chores.  After this was all complete, it was way past lunch time and both John and I were starving so we headed into Williamsburg to eat at our favorite place...G & E Drive In!  While in town we made egg deliveries to a couple of my WONDERFUL regular egg customers.  I can't tell you how nice it is to have customers who stick with me throughout the winter after the close of the Farmers Markets and who also understand when I can't supply them as well because my chickens decided to take a break during the winter!

The last stop for the day was at Singing Hills Goat Farm where I picked up a couple of bags of High Magnesium minerals for my cows.  Nancy was nice enough to pick these up for me on her feed run to save me a trip.  It is very important to "beef up" (pun intended!) the magnesium levels for the cows before all the new spring grass starts growing.  We keep loose minerals available to our cattle on a free choice basis at all times.  It's always nice to end a workday with good conversation with a farmer friend...especially when it has been a GREAT farm day!

Oh and yesterday the girls set a new 2014 on farm record...12 eggs for the day!  Go girls go!!!! 

Spring is on it's way, I know it is!!!!!!

Anne